The Way We Get By
by Clez
Summary: ...Bitten by Kelley Armstrong... Is it possible for Clay and Elena to get through an hour without some form of argument…? Only time will tell.


**Author's Note:** I just finished reading _Bitten_ by Kelley Armstrong, and my muse was driving me crazy wanting to write something for these characters, so obviously, this is my first time at the wheel with these guys. I'd love some feedback… it makes the fic world go round after all, doesn't it? ;) This is written — hopefully — in the style that Kelley Armstrong writes the stories, but with a twist… which will be very obvious after you've read the first line if you're familiar with the characters… I will now stop rambling O.o

**If you've read _Stolen_, this book's sequel, I would appreciate not hearing about it as I have yet to read it XD Thanks!**

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**THE WAY WE GET BY**

I turned my gold wedding band on my finger as I sat there, subtly watching her out of the corner of my eye, knowing she knew I was doing it but content in the fact that she would do nothing about it. She had long ago grown accustomed to my staring, and had learned how to ignore it, somehow. Granted, there was the odd occasion were she called me on it, and I had to stop, but it was rarer now than ever before… except perhaps before I changed her life forever; she enjoyed it more back then, and acted embarrassed when I let her know what I was doing. Not anymore. Now she would just sit there, and let me do it.

She was reading a book that she'd picked up in Bear Valley the last time we'd taken a ride in to pick up groceries, as I sat at a table in the study, the laptop's screensaver going by unnoticed in the corner of my eye. I couldn't even remember what I had been doing, if anything; probably just an excuse to sit with her, as usual. I knew I didn't need my excuses, and she'd come to expect me to be behind her almost at every minute of the day, but I was slowly — and almost reluctantly — learning to give her some space… _more_ space. While I couldn't read the cover of the book very well with the low lighting in the evening of the low-lit study, I cared very little. The book interested me about as much as the mud I was forced to scrape from my boots whenever I came back to the house after walking in the forest. Jeremy hated me treading dirt into the carpet, especially in here.

Things felt normal… they felt right again. In fact, they felt better. Well, not better, given the loss the Pack had suffered lately, but now that everything was calming down again and I was almost fully healed, I felt at ease; a sensation I wasn't accustomed to. I knew very well what it was that had me feeling this way, and that reason was now turning the page with a perfect calm.

I glanced out the window for a moment, seeing the moon rising high into the sky over the trees off to the side of the house a little way, and leaned back in my chair a little way. The damn thing creaked, ruining the quiet of the study.

Elena's eyes lifted from the print of her book, and she lowered it a little, as if expecting me to say something. When I didn't, she quirked a brow, still waiting.

"What?" Innocence never worked for me, but seeing as I hadn't really done anything wrong, it was worth a try.

She waited a while longer before saying, "Did you want something?"

"No."

"Then why—"

"The chair," I corrected without even letting her finish.

Elena was quiet for a while longer before she blinked, glanced at the chair almost with a quiet loathing, and then back at me. She bookmarked her page with her index finger, and settled into her seat a little more. I'd poured her a drink an hour ago, and while I'd already drank my own, I think she had only just noticed her glass. She picked it up with feminine fingers, and I watched.

"Stop that," she muttered as she raised the glass to her lips.

"Stop what?"

_Here we go again_, I found myself thinking, almost with a childlike anticipation. Anyone else would have been nervous at the approach of an inevitable debate, but not me… these were different. _We_ were different. Elena and I weren't like other lovers. We had so much history that I was sure it would rival the size of her book if I wrote it down and printed it. Perhaps not that extensive, but it was a thought that gave me amusement for a few moments before her answer came.

"Watching me like you expect me to bound for the door," she said to me as she set the glass down. While I'd been in my short reverie, she'd finished the measure. Impressive… for a normal woman, maybe; not Elena. She was different.

"That's not what I was doing," I said in my defence as I momentarily pretended to take interest in whatever was on the screen of my laptop and I hit a key. I didn't even recognise the internet site I had ended up on in my daze, and I closed it before looking to her as her voice disturbed the quiet again.

"Then what _were_ you doing?"

"Well, I _was_ watching you, darling, but I didn't expect you to bound for the door." I grinned.

She rolled her eyes, and tried to get back to her book, but it seemed I'd ruined her concentration.

"So what is it?" I asked when I noticed her eyes move along the exact same line three times in a row. Her gaze lifted into mine. "The book," I clarified. I didn't particularly care, but I pretended all the same, though I knew she would see right through me; she always did.

"You wouldn't like it," she told me bluntly. My brows rose.

"Try me, darling."

Sighing, she leaned forward in her seat, and read aloud the line she'd stumbled upon, "_'We__ need never be ashamed of our tears'_—"

I'd groaned without realising, and she shut the book with a snap as the pages slammed together. I could smell the book from where I sat; second-hand and used.

"I told you so," she murmured triumphantly.

I gazed at her, pondering my next move. Was I really that obvious? Okay, so maybe to the Pack, I was… I shouldn't have expected anything less, really. Elena and Jeremy knew me better than anyone, with Nick coming close behind them. Of course, there's a difference between your Alpha and lover knowing you, and your childhood wrestling dummy knowing you, and there always would be. Nick just couldn't rival Jeremy, and neither could rival Elena. We were connected. I knew she'd felt it when I'd been drugged in her apartment in Toronto; it was like I felt it whenever something happened to _her_. It was subconscious, and something I couldn't call on, and nothing like Jeremy's link to all of us as Alpha, finely-tuned and aware, but I wouldn't have rid myself of it for the world. It made me closer to Elena than anyone, and I cherished that. The band on my finger was almost a symbol of that intimacy, but it was a human custom I had simply indulged in at the time of our engagement and never been able to rid myself of since. The connection was something else; something deeper and more personal.

"It's a full moon," I told her at last, abandoning the 'argument' altogether, much to her apparent surprise, no matter how well she masked it. I smiled affectionately and mischievously at her as I turned off the laptop without turning, and stood from my chair. My limbs were almost aching and I could feel the slight itch. The Change wouldn't be essential, but I loved it all the same, and wanted it. Of course, I wanted her more… but I already had her.

Elena Michaels, the only female werewolf in the world; the one _I_ had created.

Elena… my lover.

"Let's go for a run."

**_Fin_**


End file.
